Half the clients who arrive in my inbox saying they want to pivot — into product, into a startup, into a yoga teacher training, into anything — don't actually want a pivot. They want a hiding place. And the two look almost identical at the start.
When the new direction is genuine, there's something specific drawing you. A skill you keep teaching yourself on weekends. A type of problem you find yourself solving in conversations with friends.
A hiding place has a push. There's something in your current role — a manager, a project, a piece of feedback — that you'd rather not deal with. The pivot is the door out of the room. Any door.
Ask yourself: if my current job were genuinely fixed tomorrow — would I still want this pivot? If yes, keep going. If no, the pivot isn't the project. Whatever's broken in the current role is the project.